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Friday 26th February 2010 is National Wear Red Day and your chance to help the British Heart Foundation fight heart disease.
All you have to do is wear an item of red clothing in support of National Wear Red day.

Order your free fundraising kit today at bhf.org.uk/red or call us on 0845 241 0976.
You can join in at work, school or with friends and family.They will send you posters, stickers, a collection box and plenty of ideas!
As the nation’s heart charity, they are totally committed to creating a world where people no longer die prematurely from heart disease. But they rely on your donations of time and money to continue their good work.

I hope you will be able to support this worthy cause.

Commenting on the Government’s ‘chain schools’ announcement, Vic D’Albert Lib Dem Parliamentary Candidate for Bury South said:

“As if we haven’t had enough proposals and meddling in our childrens’ education over the past 13 years the Government has come up with another gimmick on the eve of a General election.  This latest gimmick is just more top-down meddling from a tired Government desperate to divert attention from its failure to raise standards in our schools.

“New providers could possibly help to turn around long-term failing schools, but do we really want Ed Balls to be handpicking all 500 of them?  

“But then again properly funded Local Education Authorities can also provide answers along with improved training for teaching staff and better school management.

“I would rather see our Government concentrating on getting the basics right, freeing up teachers from beurocracy and rectifying imbalances in education funding that sees Bury Council as one of the worst funded authorities in the country.

“Only the Liberal Democrats are committed to giving all schools the extra money they need to cut class sizes and provide children who are struggling with individual support.          

“We will make sure all schools have the freedom to provide an excellent standard of education, without the constant interference of Whitehall politicians.”

Police officers have missed nearly 80,000 days of work after being assaulted by members of the public in the last five years, according to research by the Liberal Democrats. The key points are:

·         78,276 working days have been missed by police officers due to assaults between 2004/05 and 2008/09.

·         17,055 days were lost last year alone, an 11.2% increase on the previous year.

·         This is the equivalent of reducing the number of police officers in England and Wales by 75.

·         Police staff also lost 5,398 working days to assault in the last five years (including 1,118 days last year).

Commenting, Vic D’Albert, Lib Dem Parliamentary Candidate for Bury South said:“These figures are frankly alarming. We need more bobbies on the beat, not bobbies being beaten.

“These figures paint a very clear picture as to just how difficult it can be being a police officer. “Violence is clearly all too common on our streets when thousands of police working days are being lost as officers recover from assaults. Time lost that undoubtedly stretches and further undermines the effectiveness of our Police force.

“Every effort must be made to try to get injured officers back to work as quickly as possible, even if that means lighter duties or paperwork. 

“The Liberal Democrats are the only party committed to increasing police numbers. We will put 3,000 more bobbies on the beat.”

You can find out more about our plans to make our streets safer here: safer_streets_-_more_and_better_police.pdf

Local Area Partnerships have been “gagged” by Bury Council from discussing the current review of Civic suites by the Conservative Administration. 

Cllr Vic D’Albert, Lib Dem Chair of Prestwich Area Partnership had requested a special meeting of Prestwich Area Partnership to hear about the issues facing Civic venues and to provide an opportunity for residents to comment, however Bury Councils Conservative leadership has refused the request, saying that the ongoing consultation on plans for the venues makes the meeting unnecessary.The move followed controversial plans by the Conservative-run Council to hold a “task and finish group review into the future of Bury’s Civic Halls. The review follows financial concerns about Civic suites such as the Longfield Suite and Radcliffe Civic Hall.

Cllr D’Albert said “The Conservatives want to gag Prestwich Area Partnerships and others. They know that the strength of feeling against their plans is enormous, and the truth is that they just don’t want to have to face awkward questions and embarrassing truths in public again.

“The Area Partnerships are the formal body representing the communities of Bury’s six townships and we have a right to be heard. Once again the Conservatives running the Town Hall have shown that they don’t know the meaning of the word partnership.

“The local community voiced its opposition to plans to close the popular Longfield Suite in a public meeting late last year, and Cllr D’Albert believes that this show of feeling is behind the Conservative refusal to attend.

“Last time the Tories came to Prestwich, they were told in no uncertain terms that this popular community facility should stay open. What they should have done is gone away, recognised the strength of feeling and committed to working with the local community to safeguard their future and ensure we continue to provide civic venues people want. Instead, they now refuse to talk and continue to leave the threats hanging over our community centres. It’s not on, and it’s now typical of their on-going neglect of Prestwich.”

Meanwhile the Councils consultation on the future of the Civic Suites is set to end on February 28^th and it is understood that over 900 responses have been submitted already.

“Remember after February 28^th as a result of the councils gagging of the area partnerships, there may not be any further opportunities to register your views, so make sure you send in your survey responses as soon as possible.”

Surveys are available from all council buildings and on-line at www.bury.gov.uk.

The news that the UK’s public finances deteriorated further in January coupled with the 30% plus drop in retail sales show how fragile the economy still is. 

This is also worrying news for the state of the public finances. Our weak economy, with increased bankrupcies and insolvencies will undoubtedly be having a dramatic impact on tax receipts. 

If nothing else these figures underline the importance of having a credible plan to tackle the deficit and stimulate growth and jobs to strengthen future tax receipts. 

The current fragile situation combined with the announced support of 60 leading economists today add increased weight to the Lib Dem view that simply slashing spending now regardless of the economic circumstances would not only a be a fruitless labour but a damaging one. 

If we cut too soon, the economy will be pushed back into recession, lowering tax revenues even further and negating the effect of the cuts. 

Only the Liberal Democrats have a clear and concise plan for dealing with the deficit and for promoting the long-term growth and security of our economy.” 

Local Police have been cracking down on car crime with their latest initiative – Operation Cobalt.

For more details about Operation Cobalt, the latest Bogus caller and crime across the Borough take a look at the latest Homewatch newsletter: homewatch-17-feb-2010.pdf

For those that don’t know, Bury Council has 6 Local Area Partnerships, representing the 6 townships across the Borough. They examine local issues and try to respond to local concerns, representing the views of local people and communities to Bury Council, they are a partnership of elected representatives, local organisations and key agencies such as the Police, NHS etc.

Unfortunately Bury Councils Conservative Administration doesn’t actually see the Local Area Partnership as a partner!

This became clear yesterday when I requested a special meeting of Prestwich Area Partnership, which I chair. I wanted the meeting to provide an opportunity for local people to hear first hand from Council officers about the issues surrounding the Councils Civic venues and controversially, the reason they are reviewing their future.

I was told that we can’t have a special meeting, that a survey form is available for residents to complete and members of the LAP have been sent survey forms individually.

It makes you wonder whether there is any point in Area Partnerships , when at the first hurdle the ruling Tory administration do what they can to avoid them.

If that wasn’t bad enough the leader of the Council had previously told a public meeting of 300 people that he would consult with the Area Partnerships.But obviously not the actual Area Partnership – oh silly me!

Clearly the Tories don’t know the meaning of the word “Partnership” and certainly can’t be relied upon to meet a committment.

But worst of all they are failing to take an opportunity to develop the area partnership into a proactive and dynamic partnership that can respond to local residents needs and concerns and play a full role in representing their township and shaping council agendas and services.

Latest Government figures show that we are still well and truly in the mire.

Worryingly the number of people claiming Jobseeker’s Allowance soared by 23,500 last month to reach the highest level since Labour came to power in 1997.The claimant count increased to 1.64 million in January, the worst figure since April 1997.

Meanwhile long-term unemployment, covering those out of work for more than a year, increased by 37,000 in the quarter to December to 663,000, also the highest figure since 1997.

The number of people classed as economically inactive reached a record high of 8.08 million, more than 21% of the working age population. The figure covers students, people looking after a sick relative, or those who have given up looking for work, with records dating back to 1971.

Despite all this unemployment in the latest quarter actually fell slightly by 3,000 to 2.46 million, giving a jobless rate of 7.8%, unchanged from the previous three months.

Unemployment among 18- to 24-year-olds fell by 13,000 in the last three months of 2009 to 725,000, while for 16 to 24-year-olds the total dropped by 13,000 to 923,000.

This Government has failed to respond effectively and expediently to provide adequate support for those worst hit by this recession – and Labour’s ongoing failure to support the young unemployed is storing up numerous problems for the future from that generation.

The Institute of Directors has revealed that during 2009/10 a staggering 60% of businesses were refused finance by their banks and a to make matters worse 20% of business are to some extent financing their business with credit cards.

This really does lift the lid on Bank lending claims. Clearly there is massive gap between what the banks are prepared to tell us and the harsh reality of trying to run a business in recession hit Britain.

The double edged sword here is that businesses are then turning to expensive credit card finance to stay afloat when reasonable bank finance should be more readily available and so the Banks are making even greater profits from their credit cards at the expense of struggling businesses. Now that’s a disgrace.

It’s time the Government renewed pressure on the Banks and especially the nationalised ones to ensure finance is available to help ease Britains businesses through the recession and thus help the country out of recession, with guaranteed finance committments.

Its our banks provided more ready finance for cash strapped industry rather than excessive bonuses for cash happy bankers.